Court Rejects Reduced Prison Time for Murder Convict Trio

Late on Thursday afternoon, Chief Justice, Kenneth A. Benjamin, dismissed a constitutional motion filed by three prisoners convicted of different murders but later saw the charge reduced to manslaughter. The CJ dismissed the motion in a thirty-seven page ruling and affirmed their convictions and sentence. The three convicted prisoners are Kenneth Garcia, along with former Police Constable, Jose Maria Zetina and well-known Roaring Creek resident, Clifford Hyde. Present in court today were Zetina and Hyde since Garcia is out on parole since filing the constitutional motion. In early 2017 the trio filed the motions claiming that the court should have taken into consideration the time they had spent on remand when they were sentenced. Zetina was convicted of the November, 2004 killing of his pregnant eighteen year-old common-law wife, Rosa Mejia, who he killed in a jealous rage. He was convicted in July of 2008 and sentenced to life in prison but the Court of Appeal later threw out the murder conviction and replaced it with a twenty-year sentence for manslaughter. Zetina’s release date from jail was set at 2028 but with remission time he claims he never got upon conviction, he believes he could be free by November 30, 2024. In the case of Clifford Hyde, he and his brother, Russell was convicted of the 2004-night club murder of Belmopan resident, Allyson Castillo who was slain outside a night club. The brothers were sentenced to twelve years but Russell was freed of the charge after three years on remand. The third man who saw his constitutional motion dismissed is Garcia. Garcia was initially charged with the murder of his uncle, Sergio Amilcar Garcia on September 2006 but was later convicted of manslaughter before Justice Troadio Gonzalez. It was noted that the judge had taken away four years of the twelve-year year sentence leaving him to serve eight years. Sergio was struck on his head with a piece of pipe and died.

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